"We’re going to Disney World!" These are words that bring joy to the young (and the young-at-heart), and fear to the one planning the trip and paying the bill. It is true that planning a trip to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida can be pretty complicated, but if you take the time to learn what you are doing, you can enjoy a great trip and stay within your budget. Let’s start with the basics.
How Long Should I Go For?
There are several things to take into consideration when making this decision. First, the resort is HUGE. There are four main parks, two water parks, Disney Quest, Downtown Disney, a Boardwalk, two miniature golf courses and many marinas, not to mention all the resorts, which each have their own activities. There is a lot to do, so keep that in mind when making your decision. A week should allow you enough time to cover the basics at a semi-leisurely rate and still be able to spend a little time relaxing.
The other thing to keep in mind is Disney’s strange pricing structure for admission media. The longer you stay, the less your per day cost is. For example a one-day base ticket is roughly $85; a seven day ticket is $250, about $36 per day.
Where Should I Stay?
This can be broken into two categories, on-site and off-site. Disney currently has more then 20 resorts broken into several categories: Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Home Away From Home (think condos), and Campground. (Outside of Disney property, there are also literally thousands of hotels, motels, condos and rental homes anxious for your business.) Of course, Disney does everything they can to make staying at one of their resorts as attractive as possible. The following are available to all guests at a Disney-owned resort: unlimited free use of the Disney Transportation System (buses, monorails and boats); free parking at all the Disney theme parks; use of Disney’s Magical Express (a free bus service from the airport to your resort and back); free package-delivery from any of the theme parks back to your resort; charging privileges (you will be able to charge purchases at most locations on-site back to your room); the ability to make dining reservations up to 90 days in advance of your trip; and best of all, access to Extra Magic Hours (every day Disney will open one park an hour early or keep it open three hours later just for resort guests). The advantages don’t end there. Disney’s excellent transportation system makes it possible for you to arrive at Orlando and not need a rental car, which is a big advantage when you take into consideration how time-consuming it can be to sit in traffic, park and find your way around the resort. Advocates of staying in a Disney hotel say that it adds to the trip to "stay in the Magic" 24-7, and there is definitely something to be said for the fantastic Disney employees, otherwise known as "cast-members"–they really do add an extra special element to a Disney vacation.
Of course there is one huge advantage to staying off-site, and that’s price. There are some great deals at the off-site hotels, especially if you are travelling with a large group that would need more than one room. The other advantage to staying off-site is that you are able to take advantage of cheaper dining and shopping, and if you aren’t trapped in the House of Mouse, you may just be tempted to check out some of the other Orlando attractions.
Where Should I eat
Disney has tons of dining venues, suited to every taste and style. In fact there are lots of people who plan their entire trip around which restaurants they want to visit. There is everything from African restaurants to four-star restaurants to fast food cafeteria-style restaurants. With a little bit of research (which is highly recommended) you can plan out the places you think your family will enjoy. It’s also highly recommended that you decide in advance which restaurants you want to try out and make reservations (also known as Advance Dining Reservations or ADRS).
The reason why it’s so hard to get a table without a reservation anymore is thanks to the Disney Dining Plan. The Dining Plan is offered as a part of a package with room and tickets to those staying at Disney resorts. For an extra fee you can purchase pre-paid meals, and these packages are such a good deal that they became very popular very quickly. So it follows that the restaurants have filled up accordingly, especially the more popular ones.
Even if you aren’t staying on-site, it’s probably a pretty good idea to make reservations at a few Disney restaurants, some of them are attractions onto themselves (like having breakfast with Cinderella in her castle).
What will I do While I am There?
What kind of admission media you purchase is a pretty important decision. Disney has a new "Magic Your Way" ticket system. The way it works is: you decide how many days you want tickets for, whether you want to be able to visit multiple parks in one day, whether you want your tickets to never expire in case you don’t use all of them, and whether you want to take advantage of any of the "extra" parks (the water parks or DisneyQuest). If you were going for a week and wanted to be able to go to whatever park you wanted everyday you were there, even visiting multiple parks everyday, you would ask for the 7 Day Magic-Your-Way Parkhopper with the Water Parks and more add-on. That ticket would expire 14 days from the day you first used it unless you purchased the No Expiration Option.
Hopefully this was enough to whet your appetite and see that there is more to a Disney vacation then just booking a flight and a hotel room–you need to do some research. Here are some websites that will be a HUGE help.
www.allearsnet.com
www.mousesavers.com
www.disboards.com
www.tourguidemike.com
